1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to an impulse device and more particularly pertains to mounting freely movable masses about the periphery of counter rotating circular capture plates which are in turn mounted onto a main rotational axis drive shaft, whereby energy is provided to cause the circular capture plates to counter rotate, while having the ability to move the freely movable masses radially toward and away from the axis of rotation. The invention further relates to a new method of converting rotational energy, as generated by an engine or motor, into linear motion.
2. Description of the Related Art
Current terrestrial transportation technologies use a variety of mechanisms to convert the rotational energy generated by the engine or motor contained within the vehicle into the linear motion of the vehicle. In the automotive world there are three basic forms of the mechanical device generally known as a transmission that is connected to the motor/engine and in turn itself is connected to a drive shaft and gear assembly that ultimately attaches to the drive wheel(s) (the drive train) to produce the motion of the vehicle. The three basic varieties of an automotive transmission are manual, automatic and continuously variable, with the manual transmission generally being the most efficient form for transmitting the motor/engine power to the drive wheel(s).
In aircraft the choices for converting engine power output into vehicle motion are propellers and jet engine thrust from jet engines such as turbofan engines or turbojet engines. Aircraft propeller efficiency varies according to the shape of the propeller and the angle of incidence of the propeller. In every case the amount of energy used to spin the propeller is significantly greater than the amount of thrust produced. Jet engine efficiency similarly suffers losses between the input of the fuel's energy and the output of the thrust energy. Moreover, propeller aircraft suffer significant efficiency losses as altitude increases.
Marine propellers have thrust to input power ratios similar to aircraft propellers with the additional problem of corrosion and encrustation thrust losses not suffered by aircraft propellers.
Accordingly, there existed a need for a highly efficient device that would solve the problems of fuel inefficiency, excess energy consumption and reduce friction wear of operable parts. In this regard, the present invention substantially fulfills this need.
Prior patented devices have exploited the relationship between the radius of the gyration of movable weights, the centripetal force required to maintain a constant radius of the gyration of movable weights and the effect that varying the radius has on the overall energy balance of the system. By way of example, the prior art includes U.S. Pat. No. 3,968,700. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,968,700 the inventor in his abstract stated that his device “ . . . relates to new and useful improvements in devices that convert the centrifugal forces produced by rotating masses into a propulsive force acting in one direction and which is comprised of a movable supporting structure in which identical sets of masses rotate in opposite directions about an axis which is perpendicular to the desired direction of travel and a mechanism for continuously varying the radius of gyration of each mass during its cycle of revolution.” The method employed in the device of the '700 patent to create and exploit differential centripetal accelerations and convert that difference into a linear force was to have two circular aspects of that device which had their respective centers offset slightly, one circular aspect being comprised of a bearing race and the other circular aspect consisting of an assembly having an axis that has radial arms extending from it and onto which radial arms are mounted masses that can move radially toward and away from the axis along the radial arms. Since in that device the bearing race center is offset from the radial arm center of rotation, when the movable masses gyrated about the offset circular bearing race, the angular velocity, and hence the centripetal acceleration, varied with the difference in those two values, resulting in a produced linear thrust vector. Further, the device in U.S. Pat. No. 3,584,515 similarly exploited the forces generated by varying the radius of a circle around which rotating masses were constrained to take. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,998,107 the same concept of varying the radius of the circle about which masses are rotated to produce a difference from one point to another of the amount of centripetal force generated is also exploited. In the device of the '107 patent, the entire inner housing which contained the movable thrust masses, the cylinders in which the movable masses were contained and the associated connecting rods were caused to rotate about a stationary, crank like shaft that itself could be moved to vary the direction of the resulting centripetal acceleration difference that was induced by varying the radius of gyration. It could not change the magnitude of the resulting thrust vector other than by changing the velocity of gyration. In these cases the direction of the desired thrust vector is fixed by the particular design of the device, or the thrust vector magnitude is limited, or both.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,807,244 and U.S. Pat. No. 2,009,780 are other examples of such devices. In the patents discussed above the direction of the desired thrust vector is fixed by the particular design of the device, or the thrust vector magnitude is limited, or both.
Therefore, it can be appreciated that there exists a continuing need for a new and improved device which can be used to exploit the relationship between the radius of the gyration of movable weights, the centripetal force required to maintain a constant radius of the gyration of movable weights and the effect that varying the radius has on the overall energy balance of the system, without limiting or fixing the directional movement of the thrust vector to the design of the device.